The oldest temple in Mantua
Its circular structure and its marginal position with respect to the Civitas Vetus (old city) lead us to think that the Rotunda of San Lorenzo was originally a Roman temple.
The legends regarding the construction of the Christian temple date back to 1083, when Matilda of Canossa, to fulfill the wishes of his sick father to go to the Holy Land, he had a church similar to the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre built here in Mantua.
The original frescoes of the 11th-12th century.
The structure of the Rotunda of San Lorenzo It is on two levels and the gallery, reachable by stairs, is open onto the central core with a series of arches on cylindrical masonry columns, corresponding to those on the lower floor.
The women's gallery, on the upper floor, still shows traces of the original frescoes From the 11th-12th centuries, a rare example of Lombard-Romanesque painting of the Byzantine school. The quality of the preserved paintings suggests that the building was very important: faux marble on the columns and capitals and Christological scenes interact with the architecture and decorative elements.
From abandonment to recovery, in 1906.
By an edict of Guglielmo Gonzaga, in 1579 the church was closed to worship and deconsecrated, thus causing its abandonment and decay. The houses built around it ended up completely incorporating it and the Rotunda of San Lorenzo, no longer roofed, becomes the internal courtyard of a new group of houses: in the women's gallery it is still possible to see traces of what must have been a domestic hearth.
Its form and history were rediscovered in 1906 when it was restored and then reopened for worship and entrusted to the Dominican community.
